Willie Mays hasn’t played in a Major League Baseball game in more than 50 years, but the legendary athlete just earned new stats. That’s because the MLB has included Negro League statistics on his record, so at the age of 93, Mays has racked up 10 more hits since his time with the Birmingham Black Barons.
Mays’ record now includes 3,293 hits, including 10 for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, the MLB announced last week.
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Baseball was segregated until 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers as MLB’s first black player.
Mays entered the MLB in 1951 and played 23 seasons. With the Giants and Mets, Mays collected 3,283 hits – and with his Negro League hits added to the record, his career total is the 13th highest in pro baseball history, according to CBS Sports.
The inclusion of the Negro League statistics was announced by the MLB in 2020. The league said it would elevate seven Negro Leagues that played between 1920 and 1948 — meaning about 3,400 players would be recognized by the Major League.
With the change, baseball great Josh Gibson overtook several records held by several other players, CBS Sports reported. Gibson’s record now shows an average of .372, surpassing Ty Cobb’s record of .366. He also has the highest slugging percentage at .718, beating Babe Ruth’s .690.
Other players positively affected by the change: Satchel Paige, who has added 97 game wins to his record since his time with six Negro League teams, and Robinson, who has added 49 hits to his record since his lone season in the Negro League -team Kansas City Princes. And Minnie Miñoso, who played for the New York Cubans, scored 2,000 hits with the integration of statistics.
Mays, Robinson, Gibson and Paige were all previously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
